


She Don't Wanna Marry Me

by agreytracksuit



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Pining, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-28 23:37:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14460312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agreytracksuit/pseuds/agreytracksuit
Summary: Betty and Jughead are engaged and Archie's trying not to tell Betty how he really feels.Based on the song 'Marry Me' by Thomas Rhett.





	She Don't Wanna Marry Me

                Archie can’t remember when he fell in love with Betty Cooper. He supposes it was sometime in high school, maybe even when he was still with Veronica.

                What he can remember is that in the seven years since high school, he and Betty just haven’t had the timing. The feelings were there, but something always got in the way. She was always dating someone else, or he was dating someone else, and then there was college when they were too far away for anything to actually happen.

                So when Betty had received a text from Jughead (with whom she’d rekindled her romance after college) saying “we need to talk”, Archie was hopeful that maybe this time everything would all work out. Betty had been complaining for weeks that Jughead was being distant, and she was freaking out about the text. Archie knew it was selfish to be rooting for his two best friends to break up, but he couldn’t help how he felt.

                Archie sits in their usual booth at Pop’s, feeling oddly out of place in his home town, and smiles as Betty walks in and joins him.

                “Hey, I ordered you a milkshake,” he says, sliding it across the table to her. She grins at him.

                “Thanks Arch, sorry I’m late,” Betty apologises. “I have a lot to tell you about last night.”

                “You seem pretty upbeat for someone who just got dumped,” he mentions, trying not to be too obvious about his own happiness. “What happened?”

                Betty takes a deep breath, unable to keep the grin off her face. “Well,” she begins excitedly. “We didn’t break up. Actually… Jughead proposed!” She holds her hand out for Archie to see the ring and his stomach sinks.

                None of this was making any sense. Archie was so sure Jughead was going to break up with Betty, and yet here he was doing the exact opposite.

                “Aren’t you going to say something?” Betty asks, her smile disappearing as she notices Archie’s disappointment. “Aren’t you happy for me?”

                Archie forces himself to smile. “Yeah, sorry, of course,” he lies. “That’s awesome Betty, congratulations.”

                Betty shakes her head, all traces of happiness gone. “You’re not happy for me,” she states, almost offended. “You could’ve at least pretended.”

                Archie sighs, trying his best to reassure her. “Of course I’m happy for you Betty. I know you’ve always wanted to get married. It’s just…”

                It’s just what? What could he say? _It’s just that I always thought you’d be marrying me? It’s just that I don’t think you and Jughead are right for each other?_

“It’s just that I never saw Jughead as the marrying type,” he finally finishes. “But if you’ve made him want to be the marrying type then he must be pretty head over heels for you.”

                At least that wasn’t a complete lie. Betty seems to buy it as her smile returns.

                “Thanks Arch. He really makes me happy,” she tells him, reaching over the table to grab his hand and he squeezes hers.

                “So, how did he do it?” Archie asks, putting on a smile he definitely isn’t feeling.

* * *

 

                The months leading up to the wedding are far more painful than Archie could have imagined. He wants to be happy for Betty, he really does, but every time she brings up the wedding planning it’s like tiny knives stabbing him through the heart. _At least I’m not a part of the wedding party,_ he thinks.

                It’s not like Betty didn’t ask him to be her maid of honour, of course, but he’d come up with the best excuse he could to turn her down.

                “I’d love to Betty, you know I would,” he’d told her. “I just feel like it’s more Veronica’s thing. She knows about this stuff. I’d just get in the way.”

                Betty had agreed, albeit a bit reluctantly (Veronica had a tendency to completely take over when it came to party planning). He and Jughead were still close but Jughead had asked FP to be the best man, and obviously Hal is going to be walking her down the aisle.

                So for the most part, Archie’s only role is to listen to Betty complain about Veronica and stress about all of the planning. He’s glad that’s all he has to do, anything more he knows would be too painful.

                He does have to help out with the bachelorette party, and Betty doesn’t let him weasel out of that so easily.

                “Okay so we’ve got games, alcohol of course, I’ve arranged for the caterers to start serving hors d'oeuvres at 6pm so I think we’re all set!” Veronica is saying as he and Archie set up the venue. Archie isn’t really paying attention, though. He’s already thinking about the amount of alcohol it will take to get through the night.

                “Archie are you even listening?” Veronica demands.

                “Sorry Ronnie,” Archie apologises. “I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

                Veronica sighs. “Archiekins, just because we aren’t dating anymore it doesn’t mean you can’t tell me things,” she says. “We were friends first, and I want us to be that again.”

                “Even if it means telling you things you might not like?” he asks here. Veronica smiles.

                “Of course! Betty may be your best friend but you can’t always tell her everything. I should be your next point of contact,” she assures him with a supportive smile.

                Archie pulls one of the chairs out from the table and sits down with a heavy sigh. “I kind of do need to talk to someone who isn’t Betty right now,” he admits. Veronica pulls out another chair and sits across from him knee-to-knee, all attention on him. “The thing is… I don’t think she should be marrying Jughead.”

                “You think she should be marrying you,” Veronica states. Archie looks up at her in surprise.

                “Yeah, how did you know?” he asks. Veronica scoffs.

                “Please Archie, give me some credit. I’d have to blind to not know you’re in love with her,” she says. He looks at her, waiting for her to elaborate. “I’m not mad, Archie, if that’s what you think. I’m glad we had what we did but it would have been naïve to think we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. It was high school.”

                Archie nods in agreement. “So what should I do? You think I should tell her?”

                “God, no!” Veronica immediately tells him. “I understand that you’re hurting, but telling her how you feel is the absolute worst idea.”

                Archie is taken aback at the strong response from Veronica. He doesn’t even know how to respond, so he just sits there silently.

                “Look, I’m just saying you should look at it from her point of view,” Veronica finally continues. “She’s happy! She’s about to marry the man she loves and you bringing up all of these feelings is only going to confuse her. She may never forgive you.” She grabs his hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. “If you really love her, you’ll let her be happy.”

                Archie knows Veronica is right, though it doesn’t make it hurt any less, and as soon as Betty arrives at the party he starts drinking.

                She looks stunning, in a simple peach cocktail dress, her hair done in an elegant bun. She walks over to Archie and gives him a hug and a peck on the cheek.

                “You look beautiful,” he tells her. She beams at him.

                “Thank you, Archie,” she says. “And thank you for doing all of this. It really is beautiful in here. Maybe you would’ve made the perfect maid of honour after all.”

                Archie laughs. “Veronica did most of this, I was just the muscle.”

                “I'm sure that's not true. Anyway, I really appreciate it,” she says sincerely. “I’m going to go mingle, okay?” Archie nods and Betty heads off to go and talk to Ethel Muggs who has just arrived. Meanwhile, Archie grabs himself another drink.

                A few hours later Veronica turns the music off and makes her way to the front of the room, microphone in hand. Archie has had so much to drink he can barely stand, and it’s a miracle that no one has told him to stop drinking yet.

                “Good evening everyone and thank you so much for coming to celebrate Betty’s final hurrah as an unmarried woman!” Veronica announces, as everyone cheers. “I’m going to try and keep this speech as short as possible so that I still have something left to say at the wedding. So, I’ve known Betty since junior year of high school when I first moved to Riverdale, and she immediately took me under her wing. We ‘ve been best friends ever since, so I have been there through all of the ups and downs of her relationship with one Jughead Jones.”

                Archie swallows, trying hard to hold back his emotions. He can’t listen to Veronica go on about how the woman he loves is marrying someone else. He heads outside as stealthily as he can in the condition he’s in.

                The air outside is crisp but it feels good when it hits him. He needs the cold air to numb his pain, to help him forget. He can feel tears forming in his eyes and he doesn’t bother trying to hold them back. It’s all too much for him.

                It isn’t long before he hears the door open and someone joins him outside.

                “God Arch, it’s freezing out here, what are you doing?” he hears Betty ask from behind him. Archie doesn’t respond, he just takes a few deep breaths. Betty steps up beside him and sees the tears on his cheeks. She immediately reaches up to brush them away. “Oh Arch, what’s wrong?”

                Archie pulls away from her touch, unable to stand the closeness. “I can’t do this, Betty,” he finally admits.

                “Can’t do what?” she asks with nervous laughter. Archie shakes his head, knowing he shouldn’t say any more. Betty sighs. “Well I can’t make it better if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

                He wants to get it all off his chest, tell her that Jughead doesn’t deserve her, that she should be with him instead. But he can hear Veronica’s words spinning around in his head and even in his drunken state he knows that telling her anything now could ruin their friendship forever.

                “I can’t… keep drinking,” he finally says, putting on a smile for her. Betty throws her head back laughing.

                “You scared me for a second there, Arch. Maybe I should take this from you,” she says, prying the glass of whiskey from his hand. “Let’s get you back inside before you freeze to death, okay?”

                Archie nods reluctantly as Betty takes his arm and puts it around her shoulders to steady him.

“Hang on, Betty, there’s one more thing I have to do out here,” he tells her, pulling away from her. He makes sure he's a couple of feet away from her before vomiting all over the grass.

“Okay I’m going to make sure we get some water into you when we get back inside, otherwise you are going to have the mother of all hangovers tomorrow,” Betty informs him as she grabs his arm again. “How did we even let this happen? I should’ve made Veronica keep a closer eye on you.”

Betty leads him inside and Archie once again admires how beautiful she is. She’s his best friend, and he can’t believe how unbelievably lucky he is to have her in his life. He just wishes she weren’t about to marry someone else.

* * *

 

                It’s finally the day of the wedding, and Archie is filled with dread at the thought of it. He knows that Betty is going to look incredible, and he knows how much it’s going to hurt him to watch her and Jughead say their vows as they promise to be together forever. He knows he had his chance, but it doesn’t make this any easier.

                The ceremony starts at 3pm, and Archie waits until the last minute to start getting ready. If he doesn’t show up Betty will be absolutely heart broken, and that’s the only thing he can think of to get the motivation to go.

                He quickly does one last mirror check and grabs the present on his way out the door.

                The ceremony and reception are taking place in the towns botanic gardens, and it’s a beautiful day for the wedding, if only it were him getting married today and not Jughead.

                Archie looks around at all of the guests milling around, waiting for ceremony to start, and his dread only grows stronger. All of these people are so happy to be here, and he can’t stand it. He doesn’t want to make small talk about the happy couple. It’s all he can do not to break down right now.

                At the last second, he decides he can’t do this. He drops his present with the rest of them and hurries off, not really knowing where he’s headed.

                He drives around for a while, clearing his head, before he arrives at Pop’s. The place is still the same after all these years and it’s the only place he can stand to be right now, despite all of the memories with Betty it holds.

                “This is a surprise,” Pop says as he approaches Archie’s booth. “I expected you to be at the wedding today. It should be starting right about now, shouldn’t it?”

                Archie shakes his head. “I couldn’t do it, Pop,” he tells him. Pop nods his head in understanding and pours Archie a cup of coffee.

                “I thought this might be the case. Stay here as long as you need.”

                “Thanks, Pop.” Archie pulls a flask from his inner jacket pocket and pours a shot of bourbon into the black coffee. The place is empty save for Pop and Archie, since most of Pop’s regulars were invited to the wedding. Archie doesn’t mind. He needs the alone time.

                He hears the bell ring, indicating someone else has entered the shop, but he doesn’t take any notice. No one important would be coming here today.

                It’s not until someone who definitely isn’t Pop approaches his booth that he even looks up. Her face is red from crying and she’s still wearing her wedding dress. Archie swallows, not really sure what to say, but refusing to take his eyes off of her.

                “Archie,” Betty says breathlessly. “I almost made a huge mistake.”


End file.
